


Baby guitar

by Maisie_top_trash



Series: Unseen - Fear Will Lose [5]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Flirting and stuff, I honestly don't know what else to tag, M/M, Original Characters - Freeform, Piano, music teacher, ummm - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-08
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-20 03:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8234863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maisie_top_trash/pseuds/Maisie_top_trash
Summary: Unseen Fear Will Lose is a series of single chapter stories showing unseen scenes from the same universe as my main story, Fear Will Lose. In order to fully enjoy these extra bits, I recommend you go and read that first.Fear Will LoseThis chapter takes place after 37 but before 38 in regards to the timeline of Fear Will Lose, and is the first time that Tyler meets Todd.





	

* * *

"Hi Mr DJ,"  
"Hey William, I like your T-shirt."  
"Thank you, my daddy bought it for me for a present." The little boy smiled, looking down at the Spider-Man shirt whilst walking over to Tyler sat on the piano stool.

"That's nice of him, is Spider-Man your favourite?"  
"Yep, he's the absolute bestest."  
"I like him too, but I don't like spiders." Tyler told the little boy whilst helping him to sit up on the high stool.  
"Spiders are cool."

"You're braver than me. Okay William, press the D for me,"  
"D in the doghouse," William muttered, looking along all the keys until he saw a set of two blacks, then pressed the white key between them. Once he did, Tyler proceeded to play a few notes before William realised it was the Spider-Man theme tune and grinned up at his teacher.  
"Spider man spider man, does whatever a spider can," he sang along off tune whilst giggling, causing Tyler to smile too.  
"Haha alright, if you sit on the stool for the whole lesson then we'll play it again at the end, okay?"  
"Okay. I did really lots of practicing since last time so I'm really the best at it."

 

  
"Awesome, so so awesome, gimme a high five," Tyler said as William's private lesson came to an end.

The little boy jumped as he smacked Tyler's hand, and Tyler shook it afterwards playfully as though in pain. William laughed then ran over to his book bag, got out his music progress booklet, then sprinted back and placed it in Tyler's hand.

As Tyler filled in what they had done that day, William laid on his stomach on the end of the stool and hung his head under the seat, giggling as he began to go red.

"Careful you," Tyler warned him with a smile.  
"Mr Dunssoessjiv,"  
"Dun-Joseph, close,"  
"DJ,"  
"Yes William?" Tyler laughed.  
"Can you help me roll again? Pleasssse?"  
"Go on then," sighed the teacher, putting the book and pen down and grabbing the boy's ankles. William wriggled forwards and put his little hands on the floor. Tyler stood up, still holding his ankles, and carefully lowered him so that he could put his head on the floor as well, then do a forwards roll, letting go once the boy was laying flat on the floor in a fit of giggles.

"Alright mister, who's picking you up today? Grandma?"  
"Daddy,"  
"Should we go find him? I only know Grandma so you'll have to point to him."

 

  
Tyler held William's hand in one hand and the boy's book bag in the other, and together they walked out of the school music block and into the parking lot.

Once they turned the corner, Tyler looked up to see a man leaning against the bonnet of a silver Mercedes dressed in a navy 3 piece suit, hands in pockets.

"That's Daddy," William told him, letting go of his hand and running over to the man. Tyler watched as the man cracked a smile and knelt down, saying something to his son then fist bumping him.

"Hi, I'm William's music teacher, Tyler Dun-Joseph," Tyler introduced himself with a handshake once the father returned to his full height.  
"Todd Barrick, pleasure." Todd replied, shaking his hand then taking his son's bags.  
"Tyler?" William repeated quizzically.  
"Teachers have names too you sausage," Todd explained, ruffling his hair.  
"DJ," William giggled, this time rendering Todd confused.  
"The kids have all started calling me that, they've decided Dun-Joseph is too complicated." Tyler explained, winking at William.  
"Convenient initials,"

"Daddy can we listen to Everything is Awesome in the car?"  
"Of course, the CD is in the box on the front seat,"  
"Lego movie? Great choice. I'll see you in class on Friday. And lots of practicing between now and next week please." Tyler told the boy who had already run to the car door.  
"Guess we're going then." Todd smiled, "My mother will be picking him up again next week, but I'll be attending parent's evening on Monday, so I'll see you again. And thanks for teaching him, he absolutely adores it."  
"Pleased to hear it, see you Monday."

  
~

  
As Tyler quickly gulped down a bottle of water and checked his schedule for his next parent-teacher conference appointment, he was happy to see William's name.

Although every teacher would deny it, they all secretly had their favourite students, and William just so happened to be one of his. The kid always made him smile, even after he spent the morning in a room with screaming kindergarteners armed with drums and cymbals.

Tyler looked up to see Todd and William waiting at the door.  
"Come in," he called to them and they walked in, well William ran, and sat in the seats opposite Tyler.

"Good evening Mr Barrick," Tyler shook his hand across the desk, then high fived William.  
"Hi Mr DJ,"  
"Hello, are we waiting for anyone else or should we begin?" Tyler asked.  
"Daddy's old boyfriend isn't coming because Daddy's boyfriend needs to take a chill pill." William giggled.  
"Take a chill pill? Where did you learn that from?" Todd sighed at his son before smiling and shaking his head. "I apologise Mr Dun-Joseph, what he meant to say is that I recently split from my partner, so no, nobody else will be attending tonight."

"Alright not a problem. So, William, how are you enjoying music this year?"  
"It's awesome,"  
"Yeah?"  
"Yeah it's so so awesome because you do it like this, jumping, like this," the boy explained, climbing up on the chair and jumping up and down.

"William! Sit down,"  
"Haha that's quite alright, we do a game where you have to jump to a beat I play, it helps to develop a sense of rhythm." Tyler explained to the man as he settled his son back down in the seat.  
"Ah okay,"

"Is that your favourite game we play William?"  
"Ummmmm no,"  
"Which one is?"  
"Ummmmm I like the running up and down the hill game, and the one where we go in a ball or we stretch really really tall." William told his teacher, acting out the actions as he said the words.  
"Go on, you'll have to explain that to my unmusical mind." His father said, smiling at Tyler.

"First games pretty simple, I take them out to the slope on the school field and play a sequence of notes. If they think it's ascending then they run up the hill, and if they think it's descending then they run down. And the other game is to teach them pitch, I play-"  
"Can I do it?" William interrupted, already wiggling off the chair.  
"Go on then. So if I play a high note, what do you do?" Tyler asked, and William immediately stretched towards the ceiling on his tip toes. "Perfect, and a low note?" Tyler continued and the boy scrunched into a small ball on the floor before laughing and doing a forward roll.

"Is he always this energetic with you?" Todd asked as William climbed back up again.  
"Yeah," Tyler nodded.  
"He's like this at home, but I've never seen him like this with school before."  
"But Daddy that's because everyone else is booorrring, they make me do boring stuff like sitting still and I don't like it because it's so boring boring boring. Mr DJ is cool, he does fun stuff."  
"I'm glad you're enjoying it William."

"And it's all educational?" Todd asked.  
"Yes absolutely. At this age their attention spans are so short that I like to keep things interactive and high energy so they're having fun whilst actually absorbing a lot of information and beginning to create a solid basic skill set ready for things to get more complex later on."  
"Right, good."  
"At kindergarten it's mostly oriented around creating positive associations with music so that they're more likely to pursue it at a later date, but I have to say, William's progressing exceptionally."  
"Oh wow, pleased to hear it." Todd smiled, keeping eye contact with Tyler but ruffling his son's hair.

"In class he consistently shows a clear understanding of pitch, volume and tempo. He's an engaged member of the group who often contributes the right answers, and clearly shows both an enjoyment and a passion for the subject." Tyler continued telling the boy's father whilst the child obviously got bored of the grown up discussion and was instead focusing intently on the arm of the chair.  
"Okay good, very proud,"  
"And rightfully so, he's a pleasure to teach."  
"Thank you." Todd smiled,

"So what more can he be doing to make sure he's performing at the best of his abilities?"  
"Honestly? Just keep doing what he's doing. He's excelling above and beyond my expectations."  
"Wow, great."  
"If you wanted to work with him on anything then I suppose you could begin to practice repeating beats back. It's above his age, but I'm fairly confident he'll be able. Just simply clap 5 or 6 times in a pattern and ask him to repeat it back."  
"Alright, we'll incorporate that into his bedtime routine then."  
"Excellent." Tyler said, pleased that a parent was actually taking music seriously as a subject at elementary level.

"And with regards to his extra curricular piano lessons, how are they going?"  
"Again, very pleasing. He's remembering notes-"  
"Daddy I'm bored,"  
"Don't interrupt Mr Dun-Joseph squirt, we won't be much longer I promise."

"Oi William," Tyler whispered, leaning to talk to him. "Think fast," Tyler added, throwing a foam ball over the top of the young boy's head. Instantly captured by the yellow tennis ball sized object, William climbed off his chair and chased after it. He picked it up and bounced it on the floor, then picked it up again and bounced it again.  
"Just don't break anything, or I'll make you practice scales next lesson." Tyler grinned at the boy.  
"Nooooo!" William complained before getting distracted by throwing the ball again.

"As I was saying, his memory capacity for the notes is very impressive. It takes him next to no time to remember what we covered in the previous lesson, which bodes very well for his future playing the instrument."  
"Great, and you believe he does have a future playing the piano?"  
"I'm not saying he's the next Beethoven just quite yet, but absolutely he's in the perfect position to get to a very very high level of ability. Children at his age can take advantage of the enormous brain growth that takes place for them naturally; learning is effortless and limited more by the ability of the teacher to provide the appropriate material than by the student’s ability to absorb it. It's the ideal age to begin learning an instrument, especially if you have aspirations for him to pursue this lot further than simply leisure."  
"I don't have his future career mapped out as concert pianist quite yet, the boy's only 5, but I think it's great to have as many options available as possible."  
"Absolutely."

"My parents didn't care for music, so I never learnt to play an instrument and don't have a single musical bone in my body. I want things to be different for William, hopefully open some doors for him." Todd told Tyler.  
"Playing an instrument involves so many skills that will help him out in other aspects of life; perseverance, dedication, time management, sense of responsibility, listening and reading skills, concentration, discipline, confidence, to name a few."  
"I can see that," Todd nodded, clearly interested in what Tyler had to say on the matter.

"Do you have any questions?"  
"At the moment I have him practicing for 30 minutes 3 times a week, do you recommend more?"  
"No that sounds excellent, but I recommend splitting it into 20 minute sessions 4 times a week to really make sure that it's sinking in without his attention dropping out. And also, let him just mess about with piano if you can stand the noise. It's really beneficial for him to feel comfortable touching the keys and for him to make up his own little songs and sounds as well as learning those I teach him."  
"Okay we'll do that then." Todd nodding, making Tyler smile that his advice was actually being taken onboard rather than dismissed, which was the case with most younger parents. 

"Daddy come and play with me," William called from the back of the room as he continued to mess around with the foam ball.  
"William if you can wait two more minutes then I promise we'll go and play in the park together." His dad replied.  
"Yay, park park park," William jumped.

"A promise is a promise, so just quickly, there's some changes going on for me with regards to my shifts so we may have to rearrange which day William has his after school lesson. I'm not sure if it's the school's protocol, but is there anyway I can contact you directly? I've already attempted to sort it with the school secretary but she always needs to check with you and your schedule and never gets back to me, and I can't help feeling it would be easier to cut out the middle man."  
"Yeah of course," Tyler nodded, reaching down to his briefcase tucked under the desk and putting it on top, then unfastening its clips.

As he did, William ran across the room to stand behind his shoulder and watch.

"William! Don't go behind the desk and don't look in Mr Dun-Joseph's bag, come back," Todd told him, holding out a hand for the boy. He ran back around and buried himself in his father's side giggling.  
"Daddy he has a baby guitar in his bag," William whispered loudly whilst laughing. Tyler smiled as he passed across his out of school piano lessons business card to Todd, then got his ukulele out and strummed a chord.

"He didn't eat his vegetables so he never grew." Tyler explained with a wink, "This is called a ukulele William, and if you remind me in class tomorrow then we'll play a game with it."  
"Cool!" William grinned, before disappearing below the desk and doing another forwards roll.

"Come on you, let's go to the park." Todd told him once he stood up again. "What do we say to Mr Dun-Joseph?"  
"Thaaank youuu,"  
"You're welcome William,"  
"Yes thank you for inspiring him the way you have, and for your time this evening, I'm very grateful and I'll be in touch soon,"


End file.
